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AI today is like a super fast kid going through school whose teachers need to be smarter than if not as quick. In an astonishing turn of events, a (satelite)image-to-(map)image conversion algorithm was found hiding a cheat-sheet of sorts while generating maps to appear as it if had ‘learned’ do the opposite effectively[PDF]. The CycleGAN is a network that excels at learning how to map image transformations such as converting any old photo into one that looks like a Van Gogh or Picasso. Another example would be to be able to take the image of a horse and add stripes to make it look like a zebra. The CycleGAN once trained can do the reverse as well, such as an example of taking a map and convert it into a satellite image. There are a number of ways this can be very useful but it was in this task that an experiment at Google went wrong. A mapping system started to perform too well and it was found that the system was not only able to regenerate images from maps but also add … [Read more...] about Cheating AI Caught Hiding Data Using Steganography

Founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey says Square has poached Amrita Ahuja from Blizzard Entertainment, a division of the gaming company Activision Blizzard, to lead finance at the merchant services and mobile payments company. Ahuja will join Square later this month, about three months after long-time Square chief financial officer Sarah Friar exited the company in favor of a CEO opportunity at Nextdoor, a neighborhood social networking site. Friar, often described as Dorsey’s right-hand woman, joined Square in 2012 and led the startup through an initial public offering that valued the company at about $3 billion. Prior to an eight-year stint at Blizzard, Ahuja clocked in a few years at Fox Networks Group, the Walt Disney Company and Morgan Stanley, where she was an analyst in the investment banking division. “In Amrita, we have found an amazing, multidimensional business leader,” Dorsey said in a statement. “Amrita brings the ability to consider … [Read more...] about Square finds its Sarah Friar replacement with new CFO Amrita Ahuja

Well, what have we here? If it isn’t the Samsung Galaxy S10, courtesy of perennial smartphone outer, EVLeaks. This marks one the first good looks we’ve got at the phone, which is likely due out in a couple of months at Mobile World Congress. It’s a pretty rough photo — the icons are all blurred out and the cropping job isn’t great, likely in an effort to conceal the source. But it’s a pretty decent shot of the front — and hey, we probably have month and change to go for the thing to start leaking like crazy. The most interesting bit here is probably the least surprising. After holding off on the notch last generation, Samsung has skipped it over entirely, instead opting for the hole-punch camera design we recently noted would be all the rage in 2019 smartphones. Huawei, notably, already beat Samsung to the proverbial hole-punch late last year with the Nova 4. Samsung Galaxy S10 "Beyond 1," in the wild. pic.twitter.com/EMquh59Kln — … [Read more...] about Hey look, it’s the Samsung Galaxy S10

With all of the advances made by computer vision tech in the past few years, it might seem a little crazy that so much of the x-ray security equipment being used at sensitive locations is leaning so heavily on human workers to stop weapons from slipping through. Synapse Technology is creating computer vision tech which can interface with existing x-ray machines through a hardware add-on that doesn’t void the warranty but does add a neural net-powered assistant to lend a second set of eyes to the items being scanned. The startup has announced the close of a $6 million seed round led by Founders Fund, 8VC and Village Global. While the company’s largely focused on security checkpoints for “critical infrastructure” sites like government buildings or schools, the company has key interests in getting their tech into airports, another clear market for the tech. Synapse is running a pilot program at Tokyo’s Narita airport and the company says that the … [Read more...] about Synapse raises $6M to bring neural net weapon detection to x-ray machines

Google wants to help you to take a closer look at the art world. The company’s Arts & Culture app has long been one of the company’s cooler niche apps and one that I often feel guilty about overlooking every time I rediscover it. Today, the company has added another experience into the mix focused on collecting the known works of Dutch master artist Johannes Vermeer and curating them in a single place. The feature looks a lot like many of the company’s other deep dives, including listicles of factoids, interviews with experts and editorials. What makes this presentation unique is that the company actually constructed a miniature 3D art gallery that you can utilize your phone’s AR functionality to plop into physical space in front of you. With ARCore or ARKit, you can move through the “Pocket Gallery” and get close to the high-resolution captures of the paintings while also bringing up information about the works. Having just tried it, this is … [Read more...] about Google is building digital art galleries you can step into